The composition of the emotional drama of Katerina, the play is a thunderstorm. Characteristics of Katerina in "Thunderstorm", with quotes from Thunderstorm, Katerina's Ostrov husband

- this nature is not malleable, not bending. It has a highly developed personality, it has a lot of strength, energy; her rich soul demands freedom, breadth, - she does not want to secretly "steal" joy from life. She can not bend, but break. (See also the article The image of Katerina in the play "Thunderstorm" - briefly.)

A. N. Ostrovsky. Thunderstorm. Play. Series 1

Katerina received a purely national upbringing, worked out by the ancient Russian pedagogy of Domostroy. All her childhood and youth she lived locked up, but the atmosphere of parental love softened this life - besides, the influence of religion prevented her soul from hardening in suffocating loneliness. On the contrary, she did not feel bondage: “she lived - she didn’t grieve about anything, like a bird in the wild!”. Katerina often went to churches, listened to the stories of wanderers and pilgrims, listened to the singing of spiritual verses - she lived carefree, surrounded by love and affection ... And she grew up as a beautiful, tender girl, with a fine spiritual organization, a big dreamer ... Brought up in a religious way , she lived exclusively in the circle of religious ideas; her rich imagination was nourished only by those impressions that she drew from the life of the saints, from legends, apocrypha and those moods that she experienced during the service ...

“...until death, I loved to go to church! - she later recalled her youth in a conversation with her husband's sister Varvara. - Exactly, I used to go into paradise ... And I don’t see anyone, and I don’t remember the time, and I don’t hear when the service is over. Mamma used to say that everyone used to look at me, what was happening to me! And, you know, on a sunny day, such a light pillar goes down from the dome and smoke goes up in this pillar, like clouds. And I see, it used to be, a girl, I would get up at night - we also had lamps burning everywhere - but somewhere, in a corner and pray until the morning. Or I’ll go into the garden early in the morning, just as soon as the sun rises, I’ll fall on my knees, pray and cry, and I myself don’t know what I’m praying for and what I’m crying about!

From this story it is clear that Katerina was not just a religious person - she knew moments of religious "ecstasy" - that enthusiasm, which the holy ascetics were rich in, and examples of which we will find in abundance in the lives of the saints ... Like them, Katerina matured "visions" and wonderful dreams.

“And what dreams I had, Varenka, what dreams! Or golden temples, or some extraordinary gardens... And everyone sings invisible voices, and smells of cypress... Both the mountains and the trees, as if not the same as usual, but as they are written on the images!

From all these stories of Katerina, it is clear that she is not quite an ordinary person... Her soul, squeezed by the old way of life, seeks space, does not find it around her, and is carried away "woe", to God... There are many such natures in the old days went into "asceticism" ...

But sometimes, in relations with relatives, the energy of her soul broke through - she did not go "against people" but, indignant, protesting, she left then "from people"...

“I was born so hot! She tells Barbara. - I was still six years old, no more, so I did it! They offended me with something at home, but it was towards evening, it was already dark; I ran out to the Volga, got into the boat, and pushed it away from the shore. The next morning they already found it, ten miles away! ..

Eh, Varya, you don't know my character! Of course, God forbid this happens! And if it gets too cold for me here, they won't hold me back by any force. I'll throw myself out the window, I'll throw myself into the Volga. I don’t want to live here, so I won’t, even if you cut me!”

From these words it is clear that the calm, dreamy Katerina knows impulses that are difficult to cope with.

Why does the critic N.A. Dobrolyubov call Katerina a “strong character”?

In the article “A Ray of Light in the Dark Kingdom”, N.A. Dobrolyubov writes that “The Thunderstorm” expresses “a strong Russian character”, which strikes “by its opposite to any self-impossible beginnings”. This character is “concentrated and resolute, unswervingly faithful to the instinct of natural truth, full of faith in new ideals and selfless, in the sense that death is better for him than life under those principles that are contrary to him.” This is how the critic saw the character of Katerina. But is this the way the reader sees it? And how does the character of the heroine manifest itself in action?

The formation of personality begins in childhood, so the author introduces Katerina's story about life in her parents' house into the play. The experiences of the heroine, her state of mind, the perception of the events that happened to her as a tragedy - all this would be incomprehensible without a description of life before marriage and after. To explain the changes that have taken place in Katerina's soul and her inner struggle that arose as a result of her actions, the author gives pictures of the heroine's childhood and youth through memories painted in light colors (in contrast to the "dark kingdom", where she is forced to live in marriage ).

Katerina considers the atmosphere of the parental home very beneficial for her development and upbringing: “I lived, didn’t grieve about anything, ... like a bird in the wild.” The occupations of this period - needlework, gardening, going to church, singing, talking with wanderers - do not differ much from what fills the life of the heroine in the Kabanovs' house. But behind the fence of the merchant's house there is no freedom of choice, warmth and sincerity in relations between people, there is no joy and desire to sing like a bird. Everything, as in a distorted mirror, is distorted beyond recognition, and this causes dissonance in Katerina's soul. Anger, quarrelsomeness, eternal dissatisfaction, constant reproaches, moralizing and mistrust of the mother-in-law deprived Katerina of confidence in her own rightness and purity of thoughts, caused anxiety and mental pain. She longingly recalls a happy and peaceful life in girlhood, about how her parents loved her. Here, in the “dark kingdom”, the joyful expectation of happiness, the bright perception of the world, disappeared.

Cheerfulness, optimism, a feeling of purity and light in the soul were replaced by despondency, a sense of sinfulness and guilt, fear and a desire to die. This is no longer the cheerful girl that people knew her as a girl, this is a completely different Katerina. But the strength of character is manifested even in the conditions of life behind the fence, since the heroine cannot humbly endure injustice and humiliation, accept the principles of merchant hypocrisy. When Kabanova reproaches Katerina for pretense, she objects to her mother-in-law: “What with people, without people, I’m all alone, I don’t prove anything of myself ... It’s nice to endure slander!”

So no one talked to Kabanova, and Katerina was used to being sincere, and she wanted to stay like that in her husband's family. Indeed, before marriage, she was a cheerful and sensitive girl, loved nature, was kind to people. That is why N.A. Dobrolyubov had reason to call Katerina a “strong character”, which “amazes us with its opposite” in relation to the characters of the merchant class depicted in the play. Indeed, the image of the main character is the opposite of other female characters in the play "Thunderstorm".

Katerina is a sensitive and romantic nature: sometimes it seemed to her that she was standing over an abyss and someone was pushing her there, down. She seemed to have a premonition of her fall (sin and early death), so her soul is filled with fear. To love another person while married is an unforgivable sin for a believer. The girl was brought up on the principles of high morality and the fulfillment of Christian commandments, but she is used to living "by her own will", that is, to have the opportunity to choose in actions, to make decisions on her own. Therefore, she says to Varvara: “And if I get cold here, they won’t hold me back by any force. I’ll throw myself out the window, I’ll throw myself into the Volga.

Boris said about Katerina that in church she prays with an angelic smile, "but from her face it seems to glow." And this opinion confirms the peculiarity of Katerina's inner world, speaks of her difference in comparison with other heroes of the play. In her own family, where there was respect for the personality of the child, in an atmosphere of love, kindness and trust, the girl saw worthy role models. Feeling warmth and sincerity, she got used to a free life, to work without coercion. Parents did not scold her, but rejoiced, watching her behavior and actions. This gave her confidence that she was living correctly and without sin, and that God had nothing to punish her for. Her pure, immaculate soul was open to kindness and love.

In the house of the Kabanovs, as well as in the city of Kalinovo in general, Katerina finds herself in an atmosphere of bondage, hypocrisy, suspicion, where she is treated as a potential sinner, accused in advance of what she did not even think of doing. At first she made excuses, trying to prove her moral purity to everyone, she suffered and endured, but the habit of freedom and longing for sincerity in relationships with people make her go out, break out of the “dungeon”, first into the garden, then to the Volga, then to forbidden love. And a feeling of guilt comes to Katerina, she begins to think that, having crossed the borders of the "dark kingdom", she also violated her own ideas about Christian morality, about morality. It means that she has become different: she is a sinner, worthy of God's punishment.

For Katerina, feelings of loneliness, defenselessness, her own sinfulness and loss of interest in life turned out to be fatal. There are no dear people nearby, for whom it would be worth living. Caring for elderly parents or children would bring responsibility and joy into her life, but the heroine has no children, and whether her parents were alive is unknown, the play does not say.

However, it would not be entirely correct to consider Katerina a victim of an unhappy marriage, because hundreds of women patiently accepted and endured such circumstances. It is also impossible to call her repentance to her husband, an honest confession of treason, stupidity, since Katerina could not have done otherwise, thanks to her spiritual purity. And suicide was the only way out because the man she loved, Boris, could not take her with him, leaving at the request of his uncle to Siberia. Returning to the Kabanovs' house was worse for her than death: Katerina understood that they were looking for her, that she would not even have time to escape, and in the state in which the unfortunate woman was, the nearest path led her to the Volga.

All of the above arguments confirm the opinion of N.A. Dobrolyubov that Katerina became a victim of her own purity, although it is in the purity of her spiritual strength and that inner core that the merchant Kabanova could not break. The freedom-loving nature of Katerina, her principles, which did not allow her to lie, put the heroine much higher than all the characters in the play. In this situation, the decision to leave the world, where everything was contrary to her ideals, was a manifestation of strength of character. In those circumstances, only a strong person could decide to protest: Katerina felt lonely, but she rebelled against the foundations of the “dark kingdom” and significantly shook this block of ignorance.

"Thunderstorm". This is a young woman who does not yet have children and lives in her mother-in-law's house, where, in addition to her and her husband Tikhon, Tikhon's unmarried sister, Varvara, also lives. Katerina has been in love with Boris, who lives in the house of Dikiy, his orphaned nephew, for some time.

While her husband is nearby, she secretly dreams of Boris, but after his departure, Katerina begins to meet with a young man and enters into a love affair with him, with the aid of her daughter-in-law, to whom Katerina's connection is even beneficial.

The main conflict in the novel is the confrontation between Katerina and her mother-in-law, Tikhon's mother, Kabanikha. Life in the city of Kalinov is a deep swamp that sucks deeper and deeper. "Old concepts" prevail over everything. Whatever the “seniors” do, they should get away with everything, free-thinking will not be tolerated here, the “wild nobility” here feels like a fish in water.

The mother-in-law is jealous of a young attractive daughter-in-law, feeling that with the marriage of her son, her power over him rests only on constant reproaches and moral pressure. In her daughter-in-law, despite her dependent position, Kabanikha feels a strong opponent, a whole nature that does not succumb to her tyrant oppression.

Katerina does not have due respect for her, does not tremble and does not look Kabanikhe in the mouth, catching her every word. She does not act sad when her husband leaves, she does not try to be useful to her mother-in-law in order to earn a favorable nod - she is different, her nature resists pressure.

Katerina is a believing woman, and for her sin is a crime that she cannot hide. In the house of her parents, she lived as she wanted, and did what she liked: she planted flowers, prayed earnestly in church, experiencing a sense of enlightenment, listened with curiosity to the stories of wanderers. She was always loved, and she developed a strong, self-willed character, she did not tolerate any injustice and could not lie and maneuver.

At the mother-in-law, however, constant unfair reproaches await her. She is guilty of the fact that Tikhon does not, as before, show proper respect for his mother, and does not demand it from his wife either. The boar reproaches her son for not appreciating the mother's suffering in his name. The power of the tyrant slips out of the hands right before our eyes.

The betrayal of the daughter-in-law, in which the impressionable Katerina confessed in public, is the reason for Kabanikh to rejoice and repeat:

“I told you! And no one listened to me!

All sins and transgressions are due to the fact that, perceiving new trends, they do not listen to the elders. The world in which the eldest Kabanova lives suits her quite well: power over her family and in the city, wealth, severe moral pressure over her family. This is the life of Kabanikh, this is how her parents lived, and their parents - and this has not changed.

While the girl is young, she does what she wants, but when she gets married, she seems to die for the world, appearing with her family only in the market and in the church, and occasionally in crowded places. So Katerina, having come to her husband's house after a free and happy youth, also had to symbolically die, but she could not.

The same feeling of a miracle that is about to come, the expectation of the unknown, the desire to fly in and soar, which had been with her since her free youth, did not disappear anywhere, and the explosion would have happened anyway. Even if not by a connection with Boris, Katerina would still challenge the world into which she came after marriage.

It would be easier for Katerina if she loved her husband. But every day, watching how Tikhon is mercilessly suppressed by her mother-in-law, she lost her feelings, and even the remnants of respect for him. She felt sorry for him, encouraging him from time to time, and not even being very offended when Tikhon, humiliated by his mother, takes out his insult on her.

Boris seems different to her, although he is in the same humiliated position because of his sister as Tikhon. Since Katerina sees him briefly, she cannot appreciate his spiritual qualities. And when two weeks of love dope are dispelled with the arrival of her husband, she is too busy with mental anguish and her guilt to understand that his situation is no better than that of Tikhon. Boris, still clinging to a faint hope that he will get something from his grandmother's fortune, is forced to leave. He does not call Katerina with him, his mental strength is not enough for this, and he leaves with tears:

“Oh, if only there was strength!”

Katerina has no way out. The daughter-in-law has fled, the husband is broken, the lover is leaving. She remains in the power of the Kabanikha, and understands that now she will not let the guilty daughter-in-law do anything ... if she scolded her for nothing before. Further - this is a slow death, not a day without reproaches, a weak husband and there is no way to see Boris. And believing Katerina prefers to all this a terrible mortal sin - suicide - as a liberation from earthly torments.

She realizes that her impulse is terrible, but for her it is even more preferable to punish for sin than to live in the same house with the Boar before her physical death - the spiritual one has already happened.

A whole and freedom-loving nature can never withstand pressure and mockery.

Katerina could have run away, but she had no one with her. Because - suicide, quick death instead of slow. She nevertheless made her escape from the realm of "tyrants of Russian life".

In the play, "Thunderstorm" is so ambiguous that it still causes conflicting opinions and disputes among critics. Some call her "a bright ray in a dark kingdom", "a decisive nature." Others, on the contrary, reproach the heroine for her weakness, her inability to stand up for her own happiness. Who Katerina really is is difficult to answer unequivocally, and even impossible. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages, and the main character had them too.

The desire to create a happy family

Ostrovsky's play "Thunderstorm" tells about the confrontation between light and darkness, good and evil, new and old. Katerina's characterization allows the reader to understand how hard it is for a girl brought up in a loving family, where warmth and mutual understanding always reigned, to be in a house where everyone lives in fear. The main character wanted with all her heart to love her husband, create a happy family, have children and live a long life, but, unfortunately, all her hopes went to waste.

Katerina's mother-in-law kept the whole city in fear, what can we say about relatives who were afraid to take a step without her knowledge. The boar constantly humiliated and insulted her daughter-in-law, set her son against her. Tikhon treated his wife well, but could not protect her from the arbitrariness of his mother, to whom he unconditionally obeyed. The characterization of Katerina in the play "Thunderstorm" shows how disgusting she is to perform certain "rituals" in public, meaningless and no longer relevant.

Finding Happiness

It is clear that the main character could not live long in such an environment that Kabanikha created, so the tragic ending was obvious from the very beginning. The description of Katerina in the play "Thunderstorm" creates the image of a pure and bright girl, very kind and reverent about religion. She cannot endure oppression, and when her husband leaves for a trip, she decides to find happiness on the side. Katerina starts an affair with Boris Grigorievich, but going on a date with him she already understands that she does not have long to live.

The time spent with her lover is the best in the life of the heroine, she seems to be on a holiday. The characterization of Katerina in the play "Thunderstorm" shows that Boris Grigoryevich becomes for a woman a dream and an outlet, about which she dreamed all the time. The heroine understood that she would never be forgiven for treason, and her mother-in-law would die in general, and she herself could not live with such a grave sin.

Confession

The characterization of Katerina in the play "Thunderstorm" makes it possible to understand that the heroine cannot live a lie, constantly deceive others. A woman confesses her infidelity to her husband and mother-in-law "in front of all honest people." Kabanikha could not endure such a shame. If Katerina had not died, then she would have had to live under eternal arrest, her mother-in-law would not have let her breathe freely.

It was not worth hoping that Boris would save his beloved and take him away from the city. This man chose money, thereby leaving Katerina to her death. Suicide does not justify a woman, but this step was taken out of desperation. The heroine is a bright nature, she could not take root in the kingdom of darkness.

Among all types of work with the text of the play "Thunderstorm" (Ostrovsky), the composition causes particular difficulties. This is probably because the schoolchildren do not fully understand the peculiarities of Katerina's character, the peculiarity of the time in which she lived.

Let's try together to understand the issue and, based on the text, interpret the image the way the author wanted to show it.

A.N Ostrovsky. "Thunderstorm". Characteristics of Katerina

The very beginning of the nineteenth century. The first acquaintance with Katerina helps to understand the difficult environment in which she lives. The weak-willed husband who is afraid of his mother, the tyrant Kabanikha, who loves to humiliate people, strangles and oppresses Katerina. She feels her loneliness, her defenselessness, but with great love she remembers her parental home.

The characterization of Katerina ("Thunderstorm") begins with a picture of urban customs, and continues with her memories of the house where she was loved and free, where she felt like a bird. But was it all good? After all, she was given in marriage by the decision of the family, and her parents could not help but know how weak-willed her husband was, how cruel her mother-in-law was.

However, the girl, even in the stuffy atmosphere of the house-building, managed to maintain the ability to love. He falls in love with the nephew of the merchant Wild. But Katerina's character is so strong, and she herself is so pure, that the girl is afraid to even think about cheating on her husband.

The characteristic of Katerina ("Thunderstorm") stands out as a bright spot against the background of other heroes. Weak, weak-willed, contented that Tikhon will break out from under maternal control, lying by the will of circumstances Barbara - each of them struggles in his own way with unbearable and inhuman morals.

And only Katerina is fighting.

First with you. At first she does not want to hear about a meeting with Boris. Trying to "observe himself", he begs Tikhon to take her with him. Then she rebels against an inhuman society.

The characterization of Katerina ("Thunderstorm") is based on the fact that the girl is opposed to all characters. She does not secretly run to parties, as the cunning Varvara does, she is not afraid of the Kabanikha, as her son does.

The strength of Katerina's character is not that she fell in love, but that she dared to do it. And in the fact that, having failed to maintain her purity before God, she dared to accept death contrary to human and Divine laws.

The characterization of Katerina ("Thunderstorm") was created by Ostrovsky not by describing the features of her nature, but by the actions that the girl performed. Pure and honest, but infinitely lonely and infinitely loving Boris, she wanted to confess her love to the entire Kalinovsky society. He knew that she could be waiting, but she was not afraid of either the rumors or the bullying that would necessarily follow her confession.

But the tragedy of the heroine is that no one else has such a strong character. Boris abandons her, preferring an ephemeral legacy. Varvara does not understand why she confessed: she would walk herself slowly. The husband can only sob over the corpse, saying "you are happy, Katya."

The image of Katerina, created by Ostrovsky, is an excellent example of an awakening personality who is trying to break out of the sticky networks of the patriarchal way of life.